Piranha Bytes RPG teaser site

[mkreku]

Thanks, funcroc, you creepy newsstalker.

 

Looks quite OK to me. Perhaps a little desolate. I'm used to seeing those scavengers (large featherless birds) in every screenshot. But this isn't Gothic, it's Risen. I'm quite undecided about the whole "going to consoles" decision. On the one hand, it usually means they'll have to pass through Microsoft's QA (should mean less bugs, thank god). On the other hand, it may mean a lot of compromises for the PC version. A consolified Gothic? Hmm. Also, by going to the Xbox 360, I'm sure we won't be seeing any functioning brothels anymore. Nor any weed smoking. And it usually means the game will be easier.. (Americans seem to prefer to be handheld through the first 25% of every game).

 

Oh well. Still looking forward to it!

[Meshugger]

Insert [dumbing down, consoles are for kiddies, decline of the PC, failure of the free market] here.

[Musopticon?]

It's hard to think how the combat could get any dumber, going by the last three Gothics.

 

As long as the exploration and world are good, I'm sold.

[Tigranes]

So, uh, how is it any different from the Gothics? Or is it not meant to be?

[mkreku]

It's almost exactly like the Gothics. It's supposed to be closer to Gothic than Gothic 2 or 3 though. Denser and tighter. Smaller gameworld, more dialogue choices. Story divided into chapters again (four this time). Third person action RPG with real time combat. With a little luck the combat will be more like in Gothic 2 (with active blocking and circle strafing and stuff) than Gothic 3 (broken).

[Musopticon?]

With a little luck they'll get rid of left-right-left-right combo. I mean, if I can kill an orc scout with a sharp branch...something must be broken.

 

I admit that the combat through 1-2 was pretty enjoyable, just that the enemy AI problems and other issues got pretty dire the more opponents you had to face. I think I killed around double the enemies in Gothic 1 by standing on an unreachable ledge and raining arrows than in direct combat. 15 minutes of 5 shooting 5 orcs running in a queue around an obstacle gives a man time to ponder.

 

I'd prefer if they'd do something about the lock-on system as well, less restricted - larger probability of hitting several enemies with wide arcs and swings. Ranged combat is also pretty awful as it is, so a revamp there wouldn't hurt either. Free targeting, better hit detection and perhaps cross-hair or a targeting reticle to spells.

 

Then again, these are really minor nitpicks. Both early Gothics are really solid.

 

Here's to hoping that there's still someone smoking apple weed and guzzling down rice schnaps while lecturing on the relative ease of psychokinesis. Risen needs moar pot-smoking zen paladins and gut-wrenching early escapades from undead tigers when your only possessions are a bag full of raw meat and shrooms, a pickaxe and a set of laid-back moral codes when it comes to material ownership and other peoples trunks.

Edited December 10, 2008 by Musopticon?

[Morgoth]

Looks pretty good. And also yay for going X360. That should make them at least 10x more money as well. It's also going to be released around the same time as Arcania, which means fanboy nerd-rage-wars will be inevitable.

[mkreku]

The "real" Risen site is up now:

 

http://risen.deepsilver.com/blog/pages/en/news/news.php

 

Not much to see yet.

 

Also, on January 28, there will be a world exclusive preview of Risen in some German magazine called Gamestar:

 

 

Horrible, horrible German page layout!! But it's nine pages about my most anticipated game for 2009 so I'll just turn off my brain and try to read it anyhow. Somehow.

[Morgoth]

Yeah, Gamestar also has some ingame screenshots, plus they said the current version of Risen already runs more stable and is more polished than the patched Gothic 3. Well, not really a big feat.

[mkreku]

Not really newsworthy perhaps but.. For us who struggled with getting good performance from Gothic 3, no matter the settings, this might come as a surprise:

 

We are optimizing constantly. Nearly every day I hear someones saying: "Hey I have delete ... and optimized ..., and it is noticeable faster yet".

Pixel have already revealed in the german board, that you can enjoy Risen on a 600 - 800 Euro PC. He also wrote that the test system(Intel Quad Core processor and a NVIDIA Geforce 8800 GTS) can run the game at maximum detail, without any slowdowns (and the optimization of Risen isn't completed yet).

 

Source: http://forum.worldofplayers.de/forum/showp...mp;postcount=93

 

Let's hope they can keep that level of performance all the way to the end!

[Slowtrain]

Not really newsworthy perhaps but.. For us who struggled with getting good performance from Gothic 3, no matter the settings, this might come as a surprise:

 

We are optimizing constantly. Nearly every day I hear someones saying: "Hey I have delete ... and optimized ..., and it is noticeable faster yet".

Pixel have already revealed in the german board, that you can enjoy Risen on a 600 - 800 Euro PC. He also wrote that the test system(Intel Quad Core processor and a NVIDIA Geforce 8800 GTS) can run the game at maximum detail, without any slowdowns (and the optimization of Risen isn't completed yet).

 

Source: http://forum.worldofplayers.de/forum/showp...mp;postcount=93

 

Let's hope they can keep that level of performance all the way to the end!

 

 

If this is going to run well on an XBOX, how can it not run great on a good pc?

[Morgoth]

Still gonna try out the demo first though before I buy.

[mkreku]

A few new screens from Risen at worthplaying:

 

http://worthplaying.com/article.php?sid=60613

 

I like this one:

 

 

Looks a LOT like Gothic. Not a bad thing for me, but unfortunately I'm also getting some heavy Gothic 3 vibes from it. That means lots of polygons but much shorter viewing distance than in Gothic/Gothic 2. I prefer long viewing distances.

[Morgoth]

Why is this Hades drilling in his nose?

 

Edited March 14, 2009 by Morgoth

[mkreku]

I hate how picture linking works as long as you're on a site, but when you leave the image disappears..

 

ANYHOW! This is the picture I meant:

 

 

Stupid Worthplaying.

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

Very good looking, besides the bloom. I'd play that.

[mkreku]

First almost-ingame screenshot of Risen:

 

 

ALMOST :D

 

(and let's hope the picture linking works this time..)

[mkreku]

A Polish interview with some in-game footage. It's actually only the intro that's in Polish, the rest is in broken English. But it's perfectly understandable so it's fine:

 

http://www.gry-online.pl/S014.asp?ID=351

 

Looking good.

[mkreku]

Oohh, I found the same video on Youtube:

 

 

Still looking good :D

 

The funny thing is that the discussion on the Risen forums is about how crappy the armours and combat looks. People are comparing it to Dragon Age! Funny.

 

 

Edit:

Aahh, now I know what they're talking about. They think the guy is too broad over the shoulders, making his head look too tiny. Apparently there's a problem with the original video:

 

Edited March 31, 2009 by mkreku

[Meshugger]

Work and Youtube are two incompatible things. I have to check it later.

[mkreku]

Small preview of Risen on IGN UK:

 

http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/articles/966/966062p1.html

 

Although the author is wrong on so many accounts that it's not even funny. The lead platform is PC, for starters. Wizardbox aren't involved in the actual game development, they're the ones responsible for porting the game to Xbox 360. Also, there are no randomly generated dungeons at all. I have no idea where he got that from. Oh well.

[Deadly_Nightshade]

If this is going to run well on an XBOX, how can it not run great on a good pc?

 

Well, it could be a bad port, id est GTAIV, or have better graphics, id est Fallout 3 and Oblivion.

[mkreku]

Fan made films from a recent role playing game convention in Germany:

 

Part 1:

Part 2:

 

The language used in the videos was too difficult to translate for my rudimentary German skills, but the game looks smooth. They've said that the game is feature complete and that they're spending the next six months on polishing the game! Let's hope that's true.

[Morgoth]

Looks okay-ish, but I'm not getting this at release.

[funcroc]

(from Risen blog)